Openreach provide much of the cabling infrastructure in the UK and engineering resource, the declaration of MBORC (Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control) Openreach will now prioritise only the essential work and absolutely minimise work that requires their engineers to enter end customer premises.

During this period any new orders for telephony or internet services will be limited to: 

• Self-install activities (i.e. where there is no engineering visit to the end customer premises)
• Service to vulnerable end customers (in-home and carried out safely, only where essential)
• Those end customers who have no other form of broadband or telephony available – Openreach will look to deal with these via escalation channels jointly with the CP to find a solution that doesn’t require a home visit
• On-premises work for critical national infrastructure customers (NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets, financial services businesses and other categories defined by the Government)

 With immediate effect: 

• Appointment books will be closed for new appointed provision with books moved out to 1st June 2020
• Openreach will attempt to complete appointed in-flight orders outside of the premises
• Non appointed orders will continue to go ahead where no visit is required to go to the premises (transfers, upgrades to Fibre to the Cabinet)
• Repair books will remain open at this time – Openreach are reviewing non urgent repair
• Engineers will be asked NOT to enter the end customer premises and to enable/restore service where possible from outside of the premises

Openreach will ask CPs to help them identify Critical Network Infrastructure and vulnerable end customer tasks in order to prioritise these.